It ultimately put me in a bad financial position that I am barely got out of.  

Moving rents to 950 for the living unit rentals makes the 1% still work, and the 50% test becomes $2,250/2 = 1,125*12 = $13,500/0.08 makes it $168,750, so it barely passes.So, I ran the APOD (not exhaustive on a 2U+extra), see the below.This is only one approach, and it may all make sense for what you are trying to do, but it should give you a starting place to figure out what you might want to do. 

Please bare with me and I thank anyone who can provide me any insights.My wife and I are looking to purchase (our first, technically) a small factory building next door to the home we currently rent.

So on one hand he's neglecting the house but on the other he's doing the bare minimum upkeep.The owner owns the property free and clear and has never put it on the market.

The town home barely cashflow, which is ok.

.- how it looks should barely be relevant.

Unfortunately getting a LOC from a lender with just barely a year of established credit with our business has proven to be difficult. 

I am newbie and confused about bay area market for some time.does the large amount of construction in bay area mean prices are going up or is that bad.i would think higher construction leads to larger supply and thus rents shouldn't increase. my investor friend says its good since it implies higher confidence in upcoming years of employment. this is held me back for multiple years whereas rents have continued to increase - the numbers barely worked 2 years ago (prices were lower but so were rents), the numbers barely work now (since rents are higher but so are prices).what is the correct thing?

What are the essential bare minimum team members a beginning investor needs to start out?

Basically, I said all that to say that you were barely getting above retail in my opinion.Thanks to this thread, I think I will try to contract at least one.